Author: (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

Somniosus microcephalus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

Diagnosis: largest shark of the family. Snout thick, broadly rounded, more tapering before nostrils, snout tip narrowly rounded, length approximately equal to mouth breadth. Nostrils near snout tip, anterior flaps poorly developed. Eye small, circular, over front of mouth. Mouth slightly arched, labial furrows extending back for distance of half mouth width. Upper teeth lanceolate, slightly oblique; lower teeth on broad quadrate base, cusps strongly oblique, forming single cutting edge. Spiracle slightly above and behind eye by distance of 1.5 times eye diameter. Gill openings small, sub-equal in size. Pectoral fins relatively small; first dorsal fin small, brush-shaped; second dorsal fin origin over insertion of pelvic fins, free tip produced, fin height approximately half length of base; distance from free tip of second dorsal to origin of caudal fin approximately equal to second dorsal fin base; upper caudal fin short, pointed, with well-developed sub-terminal notch, lower lobe well developed. Body without lateral luminescent pores. Colour: black or brown to grey. Size: to 6.5 m, common 4.5 m.

Habitat: usually benthic at 200-600 m, but occurring on surface and in coastal waters; very sluggish, passive. Food: omnivorous; various fishes, seals, birds, carrion. Reproduction: oviparous, or ovoviviparous, large numbers of eggs found in females.

Distribution: off Greenland, Iceland and Bear I., in White Sea and, North Sea; possibly also off Portugal. Elsewhere, in north-west Atlantic, from Greenland to Gulf of Maine.

Complementary iconography. Rasmussen & Dannevig, 1960: 75-76, pl. 191 Muus & Dahlström, 1965: 48, fig. 14.
Eggs, embryonic and young stages. Bjerkan & Koefoed, 1957: 1-12, fig. 1-5.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Superclass Gnathostomata
Class Chondrichthyes
Superorder Pleurotremata
Family Squalidae
Genus Somniosus
Species Somniosus microcephalus

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Somniosus microcephalus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Somniosus microcephalus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

Synonyms:

Somniosus microcephalus (Schneider, 1801)
Squalus microcephalus Schneider, 1801, in Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichthyol.: 135 ('Habitat in mari glaciali'). Holotype lost.
Squalus carcharias (non Linnaeus): Gunnerus, 1765c: 299-307, pl. X-XI.
Acanthorhinus norvegianus Blainville, 1816, Bull. Soc. philomath. Paris, 8: 121 (name only).
Somniosus brevipinna Lesueur, 1818, J. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., 1: 222-223, pl. VIII (off Marblehead, Massachusetts). No type material.
Squalus borealis Scoresby, 1820, Arctic regions, 1: 538-540, pl. XV (fig. 3-5) (Spitzbergen Sea). No type material.
Squalus (Acanthorhinus) norvegianus: Blainville, 1820-1830: 61.
Squalus (Acanthorhinus) microcephalus: Blainville, 1820-1830: 66.
Scymnus micropterus Valenciennes, 1832, Nouv. Annls Mus. natn. Hist. nat. Paris, 1: 458-468, pl. XX ('estuaire de la Seine'). Holotype: MNHN no. 9857, one paratype: MNHN no. 9876.
Scymnus (Laemargus) borealis: Müller & Henle, 1841: 93 Duméril, 1865: 455-456, pl. V (fig. 1-2).
Laemargus borealis: Bonaparte, 1846: 16 Günther, 1870: 426-427 Nybelin, 1942, in Andersson: 268-269, fig. 101.
Scymnus microcephalus: Krøyer, 1852-1853: 914-926, fig. Malm, 1877: 626-630.
Somniosus microcephalus:Gill, 1862d: 60 Lilljeborg, 1891: 679-689 Goode&Bean, 1896: 7-8, 507, pl. III (fig. 8) Regan, 1908: 54-55 Garman, 1913: 241-242, pl. XV (fig. 46) Saemundsson, 1926: 482-489, fig. 254 Ehrenbaum, 1936: 288-290, fig. 254 Redeke, 1941: 42-43, fig. 15 Poll, 1947: 66-69, fig. 41-42 Jensen, 1948: 13-27, fig. 2-3 Bigelow & Schroeder, 1948: 516 526, fig. 100-101 (almost complete synonymy); 1957: 115-123, fig. 14B Andriashev, 1964: 41 44, fig. 18 Muus & Dahlström, 1965: 48 49, fig. Wheeler, 1969: 72-73, fig. Ledoux, 1970: 352-353 .
Scymnus (Laemargus) brevipinna: Duméril, 1865: 456-457, pl. V (fig. 3-4).
Laemargus brevipinna: Moreau, 1881: 361-363, fig. 63.
Laemargus microcephalus: Day, 1884: 320-322, pl. CLXII (fig. 1).
Acanthorhinus carcharias: Smitt, 1895: 1167-1171, fig. 342, pl. LII (fig. 3) Ehrenbaum, 1930: pl. 27 Bjerkan & Koefoed, 1957: 1-12, fig. 1-5.

Common names:

Greenland shark [En]
Laimargue du Groenland [Fr]
requin du Groenland [Fr]
Tiburón boreal [Es]
havkal [Da]
Eishai [De]
eqalussuaq [Esk]
hakári [Is]
ijshaai [Ne]
håkjerring [No]
rekin polarny [Pl]
pailona [Pr]
poljarnaja akula [Ru]
holkeri [Su]
håkäring [Sv]
groenlandse haai [Ne]

Andersson, K. A., ed. 1942. Fiskar och fiske i Norden. 1, Fiskar och fiske i havet. Stockholm, xvi+540 p., 83 col. pl., 230 fig. 2, Fiskar och Fiske i Sjör och Floder: xvii-xxiv+541-1016, fig. 231-426, col. pl. 84128. (New edition in 1954, 2: 425-769, 190 fig., 42 col. pl.)

Andriashev, A. P.1964b. Fishes of the Northern Seas of the USSR. Jerusalem, IPST, 617 p., 300 fig. (Translated from: Ryby severnykh morei SSSR. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Moskwa-Leningrad, 1954.)

Bigelow, H. B.; Schroeder, W. C. 1948b. Sharks. In: Fishes of the western north Atlantic. Mem. Sears Found. Mar. Res., New Haven, 1(1): 59-576, fig. 6-106.

Bigelow, H. B.; Schroeder, W. C. 1957. A study of the sharks of the suborder Squaloidea. Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 117 (1) :1-150, fig. 1-16, pl. IIV.

Bjerkan, P.; Koefoed, E. 1957. Notes on the Greenland shark Acanthorhinus carcharias (Gunn.). Fisk.-Dir. Skr., Serie Havundersøkelser, 11(10) :1-12, fig. 1-5.

Blainville, H. M. Ducrotay de. 1816. Prodrome d'une nouvelle distribution systématique du règne animal. Bull. Soc. philomath. Paris, 8 :105 (=113)-124.

Blainville, H. M. Ducrotay de. 1825. Vertébrés. Classe V. Poissons. Sous classe Ire. Poissons cartilagineux. In: P. Vieillot et al., 1820-30, Faune francaise ou histoire naturelle générale et particulière des animaux qui se trouvent en France, livr. 13-14, 96 p., 22 pl. (num. I to 68 with lacks).

Bloch, M. E.; Schneider, J. G. 1801. M. E. Blochii Systema Ichthyologiae iconibus cx illustratum. Post obitum auctoris opus inchoatum absolvit, correxit, interpolavit J. G. Schneider, Saxo. Berolini: Ix+584 p., 110 pl.

Bonaparte, C. L. 1845. Catalogo metodico dei pesci europei. Atti Soc. ital. Sci. nat., 1-95 (also publ. sep., Napoli, 1846, 97 p.).

Day, F. 1880-84. The Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland. London-Edinburgh, 2 vol., cxii+336 p., 5+7 fig., 92 pl. and 388 p., 87 pl. 1880:1(1):1-64, pl. I-XXVII; 1881: 1(2) (3): 65-240, pl. XXVIII-LXVIII; 1882: 1(4): 241-336, pl. LXIX-XCII; 2 (5) :1-96, pl. XCIII-CXVI; 1883: 2 (6): 97-176, pl. CXVII-CXXXII; 2 (7) :177-272, pl. CXXXIII-CXLVIII; 1884: 2 (8): 273-368, pl. CXLIX-CLXXIX.

Duméril, A. H. A.1865. Histoire naturelle des poissons ou ichthyologie générale, Paris, 2 vol., 1: 720 p., Atlas: 14 pl.

Ehrenbaum, E. 1929-30. Etmopterus spinax, Acanthias vulgaris, Acanthorhinus carcharias. In: L. Joubin, ed., Faune ichthyol. Atlant. N., Copenhagen: fiches 21, 22, 27.

Ehrenbaum, E. 1936. Naturgeschichte und wirtschaftliche Bedeutung der Seefische Nordeuropas, in Handbuch der Seefischerei N. Eur., 2: x+337 p., 276 fig., 2 tabl., 26 pl.

Garman, S. 1913. The Plagiostomia (Sharks, Skates, and Rays). Mem. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 36: xiii+528 p., 77 pl.

Günther, A.1870. Catalogue of the fishes in the British Museum. 8. Catalogue of the Physostomi containing the families Gymnotidae, Symbranchidae, Muraenidae, Pegasidae and of the Lophobranchii, Plectognathi, Dipnoi, Ganoidei, Chondropterygii, Cyclostomata, Leptocardii in the collection of the British Museum. London, xxv+549 p.

Gill, T. N. 1862d. Revision of the genera of North American Sciaeninae. Proc. Acad nat. Sci. Philad., 1861 [1862],13: 79-89.

Goode, G. B.; Bean, T. H. 1896. Oceanic ichthyology, a treatise on the deep-sea and pelagic fishes of the world, based chiefly upon the collections made by steamers Blake, Albatross and Fish Hawk in the northwestern Atlantic. Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., 30 and Spec. Bull U.S. natn. Mus., 1895 [1896] and Mem. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 1 (Text): xxxv+1-553; 2 (Atlas): xxiii+1-26, 123 pl., 417 fig.

Gunnerus, J. E. 1763c. Om Haa-Skierdingen, ibid., 2: 330-331, pl. X-XI. (German transl., 1765c, ibid., 2: 299-307, pl. X-XI.)

Jensen, A. S.1948. Contribution to the ichthyofauna of Greenland 8-24. Spolia. zool Mus. haun., 9 :1-182, 26 fig., 4 pl.

Kröyer, H. N. 1838-53. Danmarks Fiske. Kjøbenhavn. 1, 1838: 616 p.; 2, 1843-45: 644 p.; 3, 1846: 320 p.; 4, 1849: 321 640; 1852: 641-960; 1853: 961-1279.

Ledoux, J. C. 1970. Les dents des Squalidés de la Méditerranée occidentale et de l'Atlantique Nord-ouest africain. Vie Milieu, 21 (2A): 309-362, 21 fig.

Lesueur, C. A. 1818a. Description of several new species of North American fishes. J. Acad. nat Sci. Philad. (n.s.), 1: 222-235; 359-368, 3 pl.

Lilljeborg, W. 1884-91. Sveriges och Norges Fauna. Fiskar, Upsala, 3 vol. 1,1884: i-xxii+782 p.; 2, 1891: 830 p.; 3, 1891: 788 p.

Malm, A. W. 1877. Göteborg och Bohusläns fauna. Ryggradsdjuren. Göteborg, 674 p., 9 pl.

Müller, J.; Henle, J.1841. Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen. Berlin, xxii+204 p., 60 pl.

Moreau, E.1881-91. Histoire naturelle des poissons de la France, Paris, I, 1881: I-VII+ 1-480, fig. 1-82; II, 1881:1-572, fig. 83-145; III, 1881:1-697, fig. 146-220; Suppl., 1891: 1-144, fig. 221-227.

Muus, B. J.; Dahlström, P. 1965. Meeresfische in Farben, 244 p., 173 numb. and many unnumb. fig.

Poll, M.1947. Poissons marins in Faune de Belgique. Bruxelles, 452 p., 267 fig., 2 pl., 2 maps n. num. (inset).

Rasmussen, T.; Dannevig, G. 1960. Norges saltvannsfisker i plansjer og tekst. In: G. Rollefsen, G. Dannevig, H. Mosby, K. Sunnanå & H. Tambs-Lyche, Havet og våre Fisker. 1: 156+111 p., many unnumbered fig., 223 pl.

Redeke, H. C. 1941. Fauna van Nederland. X. Pisces (Cyclostomi-Euichthyes). Leiden: 1-331, 117 fig.

Regan, C. T.1908c. A synopsis of sharks of the family Squalidae. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., (8) 2: 39-57.

Saemundsson, B. 1926. Fiskarnir (Pisces Islandiae). Islensk Dyr, 1. xvi+528 p., 266 fig.

Scoresby, W. 1820. An account of the arctic regions with a history and description of the northern whale fishery, Edinburgh, 1: xx+551+82 p.

Smitt, F. A. 1893-95. (ed.) A history of Scandinavian fishes, Stockholm and Paris, Atlas, I, 1893, pl. i-xxvii.

Valenciennes, A. 1832. Description d'une grande espèce de squale, voisin des leiches. Nouv. Annls Mus. natn. Hist. nat., Paris, 1: 454-468, pl. XX.

Wheeler, A. 1969. The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe. Macmillan, London, Melbourne and Toronto: i-xvii+1-163, 5+177 fig., +392 fig. (princ. sp.)+92 n. num. fig., 16 pl., maps.

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